5 Comeback Cities of the Housing Recovery

NEW YORK (Credit.com) —The nationwide housing market is in full recovery mode after suffering greatly during and following the market meltdown, and it’s believed 2013 will be a big year for many markets. Some cities did better than others, though.

Las Vegas and Seattle had the two biggest year-over-year improvements in home asking prices between 2011 and last year, according to data from the real estate tracking firm Trulia. Las Vegas saw prices climb 16.3% in 2012 after falling a total of 11.2% over the course of 2011, marking a total jump of 27.5%. Meanwhile, Seattle’s total appreciation was 24% behind a 10.2% appreciation in 2012 after a 13.8% decline the year before.

“What a difference a year makes,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist. “In 2012, prices rose in 82 of the 100 largest metros, compared with just 12 metros seeing price increases in 2011. The 2012 price turnaround was strongest in the West and Southwest, where steady job growth and vanishing inventories lifted home prices by more than 10% in many markets.”

Rounding out the nation’s top three largest appreciations was Phoenix, Ariz., which saw a 21.8% overall improvement and prices have risen in both of the past two years (26% last year and 4.2% in 2011), the report said, and Oakland and San Jose, Calif., where the year-over-year differences came in at 21% and 20.8%, respectively. Oakland saw prices rise 12.7% last year after an 8.4% decline in 2011, while San Jose’s spiked 16.1% following a 4.7% drop the year prior.

These improvements bode well for property values nationwide headed into 2013, the report said. He added that because prices accelerated particularly in the third and fourth quarters of the year after a slow start, it’s reasonable to assume rising prices will encourage more new constructions and entice more existing homeowners to put their properties on the market again.

Some experts have also said that there may be some slowing in acceleration over the coming year, simply because the improvement in the past six months or so have been so impressive that they likely cannot be repeated.